8 Injured in Kfar Baruch Fire

A fire that broke out early Friday morning in the town of Kfar Baruch in the Emek Yezreel (Jezreel Valley) region caused injury to eight people, five of them children.

The most seriously injured was a 40-year-old man, the father of the injured children. He suffered second-degree burns to 40% of his body and serious smoke inhalation while rescuing the children from their burning home.

A 75-year-old woman suffered smoke inhalation as well and was in moderate condition as of Friday morning.

The five children and a woman approximately 40 years of age suffered light injuries due to smoke inhalation.

Nissim Malka, a MDA paramedic who was one of the first on the scene, said, “I got there and saw tumult, the house was still burning and there was thick smoke. The family was leaving the house with help from the neighbors, and people from the town were in the courtyard.”

Firefighter Asher Biton told Kol Rega radio, “The father did something heroic when he rescued his children.” He saved them by “putting them into the shovel of a tractor that was there,” he added.

“When we got there we saw him coming out of the house covered in soot. He was immediately taken for treatment,” he said.